Every year, around five million Brits head for the hills seeking the adventure that a well designed camping holiday can offer. Incredibly, it’s an industry that’s grown to over half a billion pounds a year as more people look closer to home for cost effective holidays and mini-breaks.
In a world dominated by technology, camping offers a break from the norm and a reconnection with surroundings that as humans, we are purpose built for. On a number of different levels, this reconnection with the great outdoors, with nature, with simple cooking, with each other, makes us happy and content.
Getting the most out of a camping trip is all about planning and ensuring you’re equipped for the type of holiday you want. This includes learning from others so that you avoid any potential problems that might make you wish you’d stayed at home!
Here are some ingenious little hacks that will ensure you make the most of your trip.
Fire
The campfire is a very important part of a camping holiday. It’ll keep you warm, you can dry your clothes, you can boil water and you can toast marshmallows. Without a fire, it just isn’t the same experience and so being able to make a fire quickly and easily is crucial.
Using firewood provided by campsites or collected yourself can be difficult to start a fire with because it’s so wet and it tends to hiss and smoke rather than flame.
Use a kiln dried fire lighting kit to give you the perfect, reliable base to start a fire. With much less moisture, kiln dried kindling catches quickly and offers plenty of flames for the logs.
If you’re cooking on the fire it’s also a good idea to protect it in case is rains and you can do this with some tarp, paracord, nearby trees and a bit of imagination.
Light
When it’s getting dark and you need more light than your little torch will give you, shining it into a big plastic bottle full of water will illuminate your campsite.
The most effective bottles for this are the big 6 pint milk bottles which you can just use as water storage anyway. You can also freeze them and put them in your cool box (if your cool box is big enough).
If you have a head torch, wrap it around the bottle and turn the light around to face inwards for your own homemade campfire lantern. Once you do it, you’ll wonder how you got by without it.
Small solar powered lights around the camp are also a good option if you have the space.
Food
Everyone loves taking eggs on a camping trip and there are even plastic carriers to put them in so they don’t break but the problem is, they take up a lot of room. Instead, just crack 8-10 eggs in a bowl, whisk them up and pour into a plastic bottle. You can even add some butter, milk and a bit of seasoning. When it comes to making eggs in the morning, you just pour it all into a pan and it’s job done.
If you don’t like the idea of living off dried pasta and re-hydrated ready meals, you can prepare almost anything at home to take with you, not just eggs.
Take all of those miniature condiments you’ve been collecting as well - ketchup, salt, sweet and sour sauce, jam, mustard, mayo. It’ll save you a ton of space.
Lastly, remember to leave no trace and have fun!
Author: Certainly Wood
Photo: Pixbay
